Shutdown mess creates contrast for Chris Christie

At times, Chris Christie’s party-of-one approach to politics serves him well. The federal government shutdown may be just such a time.

With polls show the Republican brand suffering, and party officials and some donors looking to GOP governors as their brightest future lights, New Jersey’s chief executive has the benefit of being well known before the current Washington gridlock as a brash personality who earned plaudits early on for his budgets — and whose media spotlight shines far away from the Capitol.

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Republican governors have all, more or less, attempted to take the same route as Christie, to different degrees and with different ends in sight. They’ve increasingly become the voice outside Washington calling on the fractured GOP to find a solution to the current crisis.

But Christie, more than others, benefits from having established himself as an enforcer, even if it’s in perception more than reality. He’s garnered more national exposure than his fellow governors, thanks to his proximity to cable TV studios in Midtown Manhattan and in-your-face style that the media can’t resist.

“Christie does have a huge advantage in market penetration because his state is in the New York media market,” said former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who was a recent chairman of the Republican Governors Association. “That makes him so much higher profile nationally as compared to a governor of Georgia, say, despite the states being about the same size.”

Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad said Christie poses “this New Jersey kind of attitude” that has made him well known.

Christie campaigned for Mitt Romney frequently and has been in high demand as a fundraiser for Republican candidates.

“I don’t fault him for what he did in terms of working closely with [President Obama] when his state was devastated by the hurricane,” Branstad said. He noted that he was RGA chairman the last time a Republican was elected governor in New Jersey — Christine Todd Whitman, who won by a slim margin.

Christie “is going to win, probably, by about 20 percent or more,” Branstad added. “I think that says a lot about his leadership ability.”

He went on to praise other GOP governors, such as Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, both of whom are mentioned as 2016 contenders. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is another well-regarded, outside-the-Beltway pol whose prospects as a potential 2016 candidate could improve if voters decide they want someone removed from constant D.C. dysfunction.

And on an issue that polls show dragging down the Republican brand more dramatically than the Democratic one right now, Christie may have the most insulation of any Republican governor. While none of the governors looking at 2016 has made fighting against the Washington stagnation their rallying cry, the New Jersey governor has come the closest in trying to draw a contrast.

His latest campaign ad focuses on his history working with Republicans and Democrats. And he has said that were he president, he would make all sides gather in a room until a budget deal was done.

“I told my staff today: If I were down there, I would say, ‘Listen, we’ve got seven hours to go. Guess where you’re spending the next seven hours? Right here in the Roosevelt Room. We’re not leaving until we get a solution to this problem,’” Christie said before the shutdown began.

One GOP operative who asked not to be identified said the weeklong shutdown — and current staring contests over raising the debt ceiling — “hurts all Republicans, but it hurts Christie less so because he’s so well defined already.”

Jindal, who is currently at the helm of the RGA and will be replaced by Christie next year, has made the media rounds in the past few days, expressing some exasperation with the current situation.

“Like every other American, we’re all frustrated with what’s going on in D.C.,” he told Yahoo News. But like Christie, he aimed most of his fire at the White House.

The Republican currently taking the most heat outside Washington is one GOPer closest to it – Virginia Attorney General Ken Cucinelli, who a POLITICO poll revealed this week has taken a beating over a shutdown that’s hitting federal workers in his state.

Christie has been the most forceful among the 2016 potential candidates in projecting a pox-on-all-their-houses attitude about the mess in Washington, though he has saved his toughest remarks for Obama, who the governor says has failed to demonstrate leadership.

Christie will have a chance to test out that message again Tuesday night in a debate against Democratic rival Barbara Buono. It’s likely to be a Jersey-centric event, and Christie has primarily stayed out of national fights as he’s focused on racking up a big margin in a Democratic-leaning state.

He’ll also face other challenges in the debate, chief among them being mindful of the optics of debating a female opponent on stage. Other male candidates running against women have tripped themselves up before, most memorably Senate Republican hopeful Rick Lazio. At a debate the New York Senate race in 2000, he walked across the stage to Hillary Clinton’s podium, jabbed a finger in her face and demanded she sign a pledge banning soft money from the race.

It’s that brashness that has made Christie famous nationally. Another well-known Republican who has also denounced gridlock and spoken out about his party’s harder edges is Jeb Bush.

Bush does not seem to be moving closer to a decision on whether to run, which he has said won’t come until mid-2014. But he is defined – for better, in terms of his appeal to his party’s elites and donors, and for worse, in terms of the unpopularity of his family name – as well as Christie is.

Democrats insist the GOP governors facing reelection next year, like Walker, will be tarred by a Republican image that’s been damaged by the ongoing shutdown. But Republicans are seeing those outside Washington as their best chance at the future.

“I think it makes the governors look stronger and better by contrast,” said RGA finance chairman Fred Malek. “There’s also a contrast with the governos’ more recent approach to governing than the extreme position of some in our party.”

Malek said donors are continuing to cut checks to the RGA.

“Fundraising right now for the RGA is extremely strong,” he said. “We’re well ahead of targets … it’s the one place in politics where donors can see they’re getting a return on their investment.”